2026, is the national year of reading, have you got a favourite book? Well one book that seems to be enjoying a surge in popularity is the Bible – with 2025 UK sales at a “record high” & worth £6.3 million. So, if people are interested in the Bible, seeking value in its words – what does our attitude towards it say? What should our relationship be with God’s word? In this week’s Life Issues, The Bible - dusty book or living Word? Paul Hammond speaks to Dr John Andrews.

Is it time we rescued the idea of intimacy from being confined to the bedroom? How close do we really want to be to God? After all, God is omnipresent, but sometimes we question God’s proximity. In this week’s Life Issues, Vicky Gibbens speaks to Ed Shaw, pastor and the author of a book about the intimacy deficit in our world today.

Singleness is not a waiting room. You’re not on pause, singleness isn’t a placeholder, it’s a powerful chapter, it’s a season with meaning. It’s not the hallway before real life starts, it’s not God hitting pause until marriage shows up. You might be single, not by choice, but singleness isn’t a holding room, it’s holy ground. Reverend Eleanor Jeans, author of the Securely Single course, joins Ashley Andrew in this week’s Life Issues episode ‘Singleness is not a waiting room’.

God created it, society seems obsessed with it, so why do we struggle to talk about it. Maybe it’s time we found God’s perspective. It’s a frank, grown up and perhaps a little bit shocking conversation. Emma Waring from “the marriage course” joins Paul in this week’s Life Issues episode ‘Seasons of Sex and Intimacy’.

Every January, the volume gets turned all the way up on the how-to’s. How to be better. How to fix yourself. How to finally become the version of you that didn’t quite make it last year. In our Life Issues episode this week Ashley Andrew is joined by Tieler Giles, Author of How to Ditch the How To. We’re talking about ditching the how-to’s. Not because growth doesn’t matter—but because somewhere along the way, self-improvement turned into self-pressure. And resolutions stopped being hopeful invitations and started sounding like accusations. What if real transformation doesn’t start with a checklist? So, let’s talk about stepping off the hamster wheel. 'How to have grace over the grind, and leave the pressure of holding onto the New Years resolutions behind' it’s the Life Issues podcast available now on UCB player.

How do we live out what it means to be known, seen and loved by God, and what kind of life does it lead to? Helen invited Richard Porter, author of The Adventure-Driven Life in this week’s episode to share his perspective as a Vietnam war veteran turned hippie who became a follower of Jesus.

What must it be like to find and experience Jesus’ love, when you live under an oppressive regime in your country and your nearest and dearest don’t believe? Marziyeh Amirizadeh wanted others in Iran to have such a relationship, but her passion led her to be sentenced to death by hanging for the crime of converting to Christianity. Vicky Gibbens was joined by Marzi to find out how Jesus helped her to survive in this week’s Life Issues.

What does it mean to be known, seen and loved by God?

Should I be worried that God knows the secrets of my heart and hears the things my inside voice says? Or encouraged that He sees the true me when others don’t? It’s this week’s Life Issues podcast with Paul Hammond who is joined by Co-Team Leader at NXT Move Europe, Dan Randall.

We all want to be understood, cared for and valued. But why? Vicky Gibbens asks Biblical Counselling UK’s Helen Thorne-Allenson in the first episode of a four-part Life Issues series exploring what it means to be ‘known, seen, loved’, inspired by the lyrics of Christian artist MŌRIAH.

What does the imagery around Santa reveal about the attitudes and yearnings of our society?

And while we’re about it, what do we think about him, is he compatible with the reason for the season? What should Christians engage with and what should they reject? And…..what should we tell our children? The history, the culture and the confusion of “Santa” it’s the Life Issues podcast available now on UCB player.